E UTHANASIA : M ERCY KILLING OR MURDER ? B David Wu

Euthanasia is the direct or indirect action to cause the death of another person for that person’s sake; that is, to provide benefit by ending a life deemed no longer worth living. Categories of euthanasia: Active and passive voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary. WHAT IS EUTHANASIA?

I NSIGHT INTO A REAL C ASE

Days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, a relief worker opened the hospital chapel’s wooden door, a smell of dead flesh filled the air. A dozen bodies lay motionless shrouded in white sheet. I NSIGHT INTO A REAL C ASE What Happened?

All of the sudden, the electricity went out. Patients began dying. Doctors and nurses were exhausted. Some decided to give some hopeless patients “a peaceful death”… I NSIGHT INTO A REAL C ASE

Is the lethal injection comforting the patients or hastening their death? I NSIGHT INTO A REAL C ASE

Cancer specialist Anna Pou was arrested on four counts of principal to second-degree murder. I NSIGHT INTO A REAL C ASE “ I did not murder them!...I’ve spent my entire life taking care of patients. I do nothing other than good to my patients. ”

The kindest action in such devastated situation seemed to be giving lethal doses of morphine. Do you think this is doing good for patients or killing them? Do you think Dr. Pou is doing the right thing in her position? I NSIGHT INTO A REAL C ASE

8/29/2005, The memorial hospital was marooned in the water as if an island. R ECONSTRUCTED STORY (Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans on Aug. 31, 2005.)

The electricity went out. The hospital went into darkness and the air conditioner went off. It became dark and hot. R ECONSTRUCTED STORY

A emergency-incident command center was immediately formed. They decided the priority of evacuation: Babies in the neonatal intensive-care unit, pregnant mothers and critically ill adult I.C.U. patients should get first priority. Patients with “Do Not Resuscitate” (D.N.R.) orders should go last. R ECONSTRUCTED STORY

They forgot an important proportion: LifeCare Hospitals of New Orleans leasing 7 th floor of the Memorial. LifeCare had 82 patients who needed intensive care or therapy, many of which were bedbound or required electric ventilators to breathe. LifeCare thus missed the evacuation of the first day. R ECONSTRUCTED STORY

At midnight of 31 th of August, a sudden collapse of backup generator forced immediate action of evacuation. Those left in Memorial are categorized into three: (“Triage”) category “1’s”: those able to walk category “2’s”: sicker and need assistance category “3’s”: very ill and those with D.N.R. R ECONSTRUCTED STORY

Do you agree with the priority the doctors and nurses decided? What are the reasons why the patients who signed D. N. R. order should be evacuated last? Do you approve or oppose? What is the best criteria for “triage”? the greatest good for the greatest number? the number of lives saved? Years of life saved? Best ‘‘quality’’ years of life saved? D ISCUSSION

Patients are sent to 2 nd floor, placed onto a stretcher and passed through a 3*3 foot opening in the wall that offered a shortcut leading to the helipad. R ECONSTRUCTED STORY

Many patients of category 3 couldn’t tolerate the terrible conditions and started dying. Reasons not to evacuate them: They might die through the evacuate process. They might be hard to move. They may not live a day longer if evacuated. Nurses were needed by many others who have better chance of successful evacuation. R ECONSTRUCTED STORY

“It was a desperate situation and I saw only two choices: quicken their deaths or abandon them… V OICES FROM … …considering that you couldn’t just leave them; the humane thing would be to put them out.’’ (Dr. Ewing Cook)

‘‘Who gave them the right to play God? Who gave them the right?’’ Mrs. Everett searched for her husband for two weeks before learning that he was dead. V OICES FROM …

What important considerations should be made to judge whether euthanasia is ethically permissible? (Justice, human dignity, family relationship, rights of other patients, the right to live…,etc.) If you had been a doctor at the Memorial Medical center when the incident occurred, what would you do? Y OUR V IEWPOINT ?

VIDEO